Post by Deborah Udy Okusaga Akanne (@deborah_udy_okusaga)
I Just Did What I Was Told! That Answer Scores A 1.
Here's What Scores A 4.
"Tell us about a time you disagreed with a senior colleague's clinical decision."
A surprising number of candidates either dodge this question entirely — claiming they've never disagreed with anyone — or answer it in a way that reveals exactly the opposite of what the panel is hoping to hear: total deference, no matter what.
Here is the uncomfortable truth panels are testing for. The NHS does not want staff who simply comply regardless of clinical judgement. Patient safety incidents are repeatedly linked to situations where someone had a concern, said nothing, and deferred to hierarchy instead of escalating.
The panel is explicitly screening for whether you have the professional courage to raise a concern, and the professional skill to do it appropriately, without creating unnecessary conflict.
A candidate who says "I always defer to my senior's judgement" is, however unintentionally, describing a patient safety risk.
What scores a 4 has a specific shape. Name a real situation where you genuinely held a different clinical view. Describe how you raised it — calmly, with clinical reasoning, through the appropriate channel, not as a confrontation.
Describe the outcome honestly, including if the senior colleague's original view turned out to be correct — the panel isn't scoring whether you were right, they're scoring whether you raised it properly.
And close with what the experience taught you about safe escalation.
The honesty of that last point matters more than people think. A candidate who only tells "I disagreed and I was right" stories sounds rehearsed and selective. A candidate willing to describe a time they raised a concern and were, on reflection, mistaken — but did it the right way regardless — sounds like someone with genuine professional maturity.
DM me "DISAGREE" and I'll send you a structured framework for this exact question.
Post 2 at 9am breaks down the four themes of the NMC Code and exactly how nursing panels score against them — even when the question never says "NMC Code" out loud.
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